Male and female threaded fasteners, such as bolts and machine screws (along with corresponding nuts), are used in a variety of applications today, most often to connect and secure two or more pieces or items together. Indeed, for many years, male and female threaded fasteners have been used in residential and commercial construction, complex machine construction, and many other industries. A frequent and long-standing problem with male and female threaded fasteners is the unwanted (and sometimes dangerous) loosening of a female fastener (e.g., a nut) along the shaft of a corresponding male fastener (e.g., a screw or bolt), which may be caused by vibration, lubrication, thermal expansion and shrinkage, and other external forces. For example, when a screw/bolt and nut combination is incorporated into a complex machine that undergoes periodic vibrations, such vibrations will often cause the nut (over time) to loosen and travel along the threaded axis of the screw/bolt—in a direction that ultimately loosens the nut and screw/bolt combination, thereby loosening the two pieces that are connected together through such screw/bolt and nut combination.
Accordingly, there continues to be a demand in the marketplace for improved male and female threaded fasteners. More particularly, there continues to be a demand for improved male and female threaded fasteners, which are resistant to unwanted loosening over time. As the following will demonstrate, the invention described herein addresses such demands in the marketplace (as well as others).